D'Angelo, whose cookbook Are You Game? contains 216 recipes for hunters, says the game meats he sells are farm-raised, fed naturally, humanely harvested, and government inspected.

But if I were to get my tongs on some moose and cook it myself, D'Angelo says, it would taste like elk.

Hmm. That's not much help for a city slicker.

Better put in a call to Laraine Derr, of the Chez Alaska Cooking School in Juneau's Nugget Mall.

Derr offers classes in making moose meatballs and moose sliders for the thousands of cruise-ship travelers who pass through that state's Inside Passage each year, as well as classes for locals in stewing and canning moose.

For her sliders, Derr puts 11/2-ounce grilled moose patties on sourdough bread with wild cranberry ketchup and sauteed smoked onions.

She says the meat is tender and delicious.

Moose are more plentiful in Alaska than in New Hampshire, Derr says, especially in Palin's neck of the woods.

"Where she lives you can just go out a short distance and find a moose," Derr says. "Even in Anchorage, moose just come wandering by."

That isn't the way it happened for Lansdale native Cheryl Briere. She and her husband, who live in New Hampshire now and bagged a moose there in 2004, hunted four days straight.

"We see moose and their tracks and where they bed down all the time," Briere said, "But you have to train and be physically able to stalk the animals up hills, and over downed trees."

And that's while carrying a pack with a tarp and other equipment for field-dressing, food and water, camping gear, and more.

The Brieres entered the New Hampshire wildlife lottery for years before winning in 2004. They were after the meat - not the antlers. And they knew what to expect because in New Hampshire, if you come across roadkill you can claim it through the state and take it home. And the Brieres had been the lucky recipients of two roadkill moose.

"We prefer the taste to any steak or cow meat," Cheryl Briere said.

The moose they finally bagged was a two-year-old cow (female) that weighed about 600 pounds and yielded 250 to 300 pounds of meat.

"The meat was tender like veal. There was no fat on it. In fact, the butcher said be real careful when you're handling this, you could put your fingers right through it.

"We got ribs, and roasts that we grilled. We brushed it with some olive oil and some herbs and cook it 130 degrees for medium-rare.

"It's just divine."

Teddy bears, broccoli and cookie-baking